Chapter 83: Growing Spiritual Fruits

Almost as though his entire body had suddenly become weightless.

Ethan’s eyes snapped open and he instinctively tightened his grip around Aster’s book.

Then, in the very next second—

His entire body, along with Aster’s precious book, completely disappeared from his room.

***

Ethan found himself standing in the familiar space he had discovered earlier, and for a few seconds, he simply stared around him in disbelief.

So it was true.

He had really awakened a dungeon.

The realization sent a wave of exhilaration through him, and he couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face as he looked around at the strange world that now belonged entirely to him. The enormous spiritual tree stood in the distance, its branches stretching high above the ground while the waterfall continued pouring crystal-clear spiritual water into the pool below, filling the entire area with a dense and refreshing spiritual atmosphere.

This was his dungeon.

His very own private spiritual space.

Ethan wanted nothing more than to explore every corner of it again, but the thought of his rapidly approaching class immediately brought him back to reality.

He didn’t have time.

If he wanted to make spiritual fruits before leaving for his lecture, he needed to get started now.

Ethan quickly opened Aster’s book and flipped back to the section on spiritual fruits, his eyes scanning through the instructions with renewed concentration.

According to Aster’s explanation, growing a spiritual fruit wasn’t something that could be accomplished simply by throwing spiritual energy into the ground and waiting for something magical to happen.

There was a proper process.

And the first requirement was surprisingly ordinary.

A real fruit.

Ethan paused.

A real fruit?

He read the explanation again to make sure.

Yes.

[The cultivation of a spiritual fruit began with an ordinary physical fruit, preferably one that was fresh, healthy, and naturally rich in nutrients. The fruit served as the foundation, or more precisely, the spiritual seed from which the future spiritual fruits would develop.]

[The Guide would first need to hold the fruit and concentrate their purified spiritual energy into it.]

However, simply transferring spiritual energy wasn’t enough.

[The energy had to be carefully refined before being channelled into the fruit, because impurities within the spiritual energy could negatively affect the cultivation process or even cause the fruit to fail entirely.]

[The Guide would have to continuously infuse the fruit while maintaining a stable flow of spiritual energy, allowing the ordinary fruit to gradually absorb the energy until it became completely saturated.]

[Once the fruit had been successfully infused, it had to be planted inside the Guide’s dungeon.]

That was where things became more complicated.

The location mattered.

A Guide couldn’t simply dig a hole anywhere in their dungeon and expect the same result.

[Different areas contained different concentrations and qualities of spiritual energy, and some locations were naturally more suitable for cultivation than others. Areas where spiritual energy gathered steadily and remained pure were considered highly productive cultivation grounds, while locations with weak or unstable spiritual energy could drastically slow the process.]

[The quality of the original fruit mattered as well.]

[The purer and healthier the fruit used as the foundation, the greater its potential.]

[The quality of the purified spiritual energy infused into it mattered just as much, and the Guide’s control over their spiritual energy could determine whether the resulting spiritual fruits were ordinary, high-quality, or completely failed.]

Even the location where the fruit was planted could affect the final result.

All three factors worked together.

^The quality of the original fruit.

^The purity and amount of spiritual energy infused into it.

^And the productivity of the location where it was planted.

Ethan’s expression became increasingly serious as he continued reading.

Apparently, there was no fixed number of spiritual fruits that would grow from a single ordinary fruit.

One successfully cultivated fruit could produce ten spiritual fruits.

It could produce dozens.

Under exceptional circumstances, it could even produce hundreds.

But there was also a worst-case scenario.

A single spiritual fruit.

That was it.

Sometimes the cultivation could even fail completely.

And the time required for the spiritual fruits to mature wasn’t fixed either.

Depending on the quality of the original fruit, the purity of the spiritual energy, and the location chosen inside the dungeon, the spiritual fruits could bloom within a single day.

Or they could take several weeks.

Several months.

In extremely poor conditions, they could even take years.

Ethan slowly lowered the book.

"So basically, I can’t just plant one thing and expect hundreds of fruits tomorrow."

That was slightly disappointing.

But at the same time, it made sense.

If spiritual fruits were really that easy to produce, every powerful Guide in the world would have an endless supply of them.

Ethan continued reading, memorizing the important details while already imagining himself standing beside the enormous spiritual tree with dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of spiritual fruits growing around him.

His excitement slowly returned.

This was still incredible.

Even if the process took time, the fact that he could cultivate them himself meant that he had access to a resource most Guides could only dream about.

And if he chose the cultivation location carefully and used high-quality fruits while maintaining perfectly purified spiritual energy, he might be able to maximize the number of spiritual fruits produced.

Ethan looked around his dungeon again.

His eyes eventually settled on the enormous spiritual tree and the clear waterfall beside it.

There had to be a good place somewhere around here.

He closed Aster’s book and stood up, suddenly eager to begin.

Then he froze.

A thought slowly entered his mind.

He looked down at his empty hands.

Then at Aster’s book.

Then back at his empty hands.

His expression gradually fell.

"...Wait."

He had the dungeon.

He had the spiritual energy.

He had Aster’s instructions.

He even had the perfect place to begin searching for a cultivation ground.

But there was one tiny problem.

The only thing missing from the entire process...

Was a real fruit.